The world’s tyrannical regimes are hard at work to roll back the past twenty years’ gains. The cooperate regardless of ideology: China will support any tin-pot dictator in Africa who will keep raw materials flowing. The Iranians fund bombers both Sunni and Shiite, while cooperating with Hugo Chavez’ communist regime, which is happy to supply drug gangsters in Columbia, who are happy to cooperate with the kind of muftidun who think blowing up little girls for Allah passes Koranic muster.

They all cooperate with each other against the threat of freedom. And those45 regimes stand with their boots on the necks of over two billion people.

4 Comments

Wow. An endorsement of a webpage which endorses Amnesty International. I’m impressed. But then again I always knew you were an idealist.

However, we do need some hard-nosed Realpolitik here. These alliances occur because we let them occur. We can’t do anything about it by pouting on the sidelines like Bush is. If Nixon could go to China to help its split from the Soviet Union, Bush should be able to go to Iran, or Venezuela, or anywhere else, to prevent the formation of a bloc. As disgusting as it may be, you have to talk with tyrants.

You need to read Palmer’s book. You’re ascribing arguments to this position that it does not hold. I am NOT a foreign-policy “Bushie,” though I agree strongly with both Pinochet and Palmer on the viability of democracies.

We need hardnosed realpolitik… but we do not need a continuation of hardnosed foreign-policy Realism.

If it costs us 300 billion to buy off the Iranian leadership, set them up with a constitution that guarantees immunity to prosecution for life, and gives them a motivation to allow the Iranian economy to grow… I’m just fine with that. If the PLA generals hadn’t been afraid of having to live the rest of their lives under house arrest, Tianenman wouldn’t have happened.